BACKSTREET’S BACK.
“I need you to act like you’re 15 years old again tonight. Can you do it?” yelled Nick Carter.
Let’s go back in time. Shall we?
For anyone in their junior high school years during the late 90s, life was all about The Backstreet Boys, The Spice Girls or whichever pop group’s CD you could convince your parents to buy you. Every Backstreet Boys fan is guilty of either one or all of the following: rehearsing every dance move and lyric while watching VHS recordings of Video Hits, having a collection of posters on the wall of the band to kiss every night, or writing ‘I Love Nick Carter 4EVA’ on at least one school book.
With all five members of the band back together, now at an average age of 39, it’s hard to believe those same teenage fans would still want it that way; but as the band have grown up, so have the audience. Walking in, it was comical to see a larger than normal force of security guards protecting the catwalk and stage area. Did they think hundreds of (almost) middle-aged women would storm the stage and try to grab Nick Carter’s white studded belt? Needless to say, it did get a little crazy when the lights dropped.
Starting with The Call and We’ve Got It Goin’ On, it was instantly evident that the Boys still had their cheesy, but albeit much loved dance moves still very much intact. A few songs in, the band changed from suits into their traditional 90s get-up with Nick even sporting his signature bum-part blonde undercut. In fact, the whole band looked impressively (almost) as they did 20 years ago. A two-hour set of hits included Shape of My Heart, Quit Playing Games, As Long As You Love Me, Incomplete – all songs responsible for burning out Discman batteries and jamming up tape decks everywhere. New songs scattered throughout didn’t have the same impact, possibly because of the lack of choreographed dance moves, and weirdly titled new tune Permanent Stain had everyone looking around awkwardly. Many song transitions were slow, with the band telling rehearsed stories to introduce almost every track and at one point getting the crowd to succumb to the dreaded ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ chant.
A quick acoustic set in the middle saw Nick, Brian and AJ on guitar with Kevin and Howie taking up percussion. Supposedly meant to alleviate any concerns that the guys aren’t ‘real’ musicians, the set proved a distraction with Brian even saying “We’re playing instruments because we’re not going to be able to shake our booties like this forever.”
Saving the biggest hits until the end, it’s not clear what was louder, the screams of girls finding their 15-year-old selves again or the music. It erupted as that famous line – that was probably solely responsible for almost every young middle class white girl’s sexual discovery – from ‘Everybody (Backstreets Back)’ rang out “Am I sexual?”
Looking back now, when you’re 15 years old, lusting after men almost ten years older than you seems weird. When you’re in your late 20s and those men still look and move just as good as they did 20 years ago, it somehow all makes sense.
Vivienne Mellish
